Finland’s Ville Itälä will be the new director-general of OLAF, the EU’s anti-fraud office. He comes from the Finnish Kokoomus party, affiliated with the centre-right European Peoples’ Party (EPP) and will move to Olaf from his current post with the European Court of Auditors.

Former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who was also the leader of the Social Democrats in her country from 2005 to 2015, made an appearance in Brussels today (11 June) offering her views how the EU should better makes it case globally and improve internally.

Former Finnish prime ministers Alexander Stubb and Jyrki Katainen left open the possibility on Saturday (9 June) that they would run to succeed Jean-Claude Juncker as the EU executive’s president next year.

The informal EU-27 summit on Friday (23 February) will discuss the preparation of the 2019 European elections, institutional issues and the next long-term EU budget. But diplomats said the leaders would steer clear of any big decisions that would require treaty change.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker chided French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday (14 February) for failing to form clear Europe-wide party political alliances, as manoeuvring warms up over next year's EU parliament elections.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte poured cold water on Bulgaria’s ambition to unlock its stalled bid to join the EU border-free Schengen area on Tuesday (6 February) and said the country also needed more work to meet the criteria for joining the Eurozone.

Ireland’s concerns over how the European Union should proceed with taxing large digital businesses are shared by a growing number of countries, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said on Monday (5 February).

NATO today (12 December) reappointed Jens Stoltenberg as secretary general to serve until 2020, as the alliance undergoes its biggest revamp since the Cold War to counter the perceived threat posed by Russia.

French President François Hollande said yesterday (20 February) there would be a summit in Versailles with the leaders of Germany, Italy and Spain on 6 March to prepare reforms for the European Union ahead of the 60th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome on 25 March.

Centre-left leaders could try to oust Donald Tusk as chair of the European Council and key broker of Brexit negotiations with Britain and will have their first discussion on the issue next week before an EU summit in Malta, their party president said.

François Hollande does not want to chair the European Council when he steps down as French president in May, aides said yesterday (19 January), denying a report that he hoped to succeed Donald Tusk in overseeing negotiations on Britain's exit from the EU.

Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev, whose term expires on Sunday, warned in his last speech in parliament today (18 January) that the country may lose its EU Presidency, "if it contributes to the division of the Union". EURACTIV.com reports, in partnership with Dnevnik.

EXCLUSIVE / Christopher Steele, a former Russia operations officer for Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency who is purported to be the author of a dossier of allegations against US President-elect Donald Trump, has also investigated former Bulgarian Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva, EURACTIV.com can reveal.

Commission Vice-President Andrus Ansip said today (10 January) he has only temporarily taken the digital economy portfolio from Günther Oettinger, but that there was no guarantee that this portfolio would go to the future Bulgarian commissioner, who is yet to be nominated.

The rejected bid of Italy’s 5 Star Movement to join the liberal ALDE group in the European Parliament has hugely reduced the chances of Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt to become the next president of the EU Assembly, research shows.

Donald Tusk suffered another attack from Poland's populist government on Monday (2 January), when Minister of Foreign Affairs Witold Waszczykowski told Krakow radio station RMF FM that he was an “icon of evil and stupidity” and that he should stay “far away from Poland”.

The European Union's centre-right grouping yesterday (13 December) elected Antonio Tajani as its candidate to replace Social Democrat Martin Schulz as President of the European Parliament, a move that could increase calls for a reshuffle of other top EU jobs.